In the past... On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary 13-year-old boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community. Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in a shattering act of betrayal. In the present... On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is back on the job....

No Mark Upon Her: A Duncan Kincaid - Gemma James Crime Novel, Book 14

When a K9 search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers - and just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the Met - a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an already sensitive case.

Where Memories Lie

New York Times best-selling author Deborah Crombie pens suspenseful English mysteries that have drawn favorable comparisons to the best of P. D. James and Ruth Rendell. Her novel Dreaming of the Bones made the Independent Mystery Booksellers of America’s list of the 100 Best Crime Novels of the 20th Century.

To Dwell in Darkness

Recently transferred to the London borough of Camden from Scotland Yard headquarters, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his new murder investigation team are called to a deadly bombing at historic St. Pancras Station. By fortunate coincidence, Melody Talbot, Gemma's trusted colleague, witnesses the explosion. The victim was taking part in an organized protest, yet the other group members swear the young man only meant to set off a smoke bomb.

And Justice There Is None: A Duncan Kincaid / Jemma James Novel

Gemma James is adjusting to professional and personal changes - and a future now intricately entwined with Duncan Kincaid. But her new responsibilities are put to the test when she is placed in charge of a particularly brutal homicide: The lovely young wife of a wealthy antiques dealer has been found murdered on fashionable Notting Hill. This case sets off warning bells for Duncan: It's far too similar to an unsolved murder in which an antiques dealer was killed in precisely the same way.

A Finer End: A Duncan Kincaid / Gemma James Novel

Two spellbinding mysteries, one contemporary, and one ancient - that will challenge Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James as no case ever has. Glastonbury is a town revered as the mythical burial place of King Arthur, and, according to New Age followers, a source of strong Druid power. Something terrible and bloody shattered Glastonbury Abbey's peace long ago - and now it is about to spark a violence that will reach forward into the present.

Kissed a Sad Goodbye: A Duncan Kincaid / Jemma James Novel

A stunningly beautiful young woman is found strangled in London's Mudchute Park, her clothing carefully arranged to preserve her modesty. With that unusual detail in mind, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his partner Sergeant Gemma James suspect the crime was more than a simple assault gone awry. As they collect the strange facts surrounding her death, they discover the victim's life was a mystery even to those who knew her best.

Dreaming of the Bones

Often compared to both Ruth Rendell and P.D. James, Deborah Crombie is internationally acclaimed for her deftly written mysteries that combine suspense, with lyrical prose. Sharply etched characters further enrich this story of tangled relationships and dark secrets. Twelve years after their divorce, Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid receives a phone call from his ex-wife Victoria asking for his help.

Mourn Not Your Dead

Scotland Yard Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are sent to suburban Surrey to investigate the murder of a high-ranking police officer. Alastair Gilbert was bludgeoned to death in his kitchen, and the list of potential suspects is long--the man's arrogance earned him widespread enmity both in the village where he lived, and in police circles. But Duncan and Gemma must put aside their personal feelings--for the victim, as well as for each other--to solve the most troubling case either has faced.

Leave the Grave Green

When a body is discovered floating in a Thames river lock one dreary morning, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and Sergeant Gemma James are summoned from Scotland Yard to Chiltern Hills. The dead man is Connor Swann, son-in-law of two of London's most renowned opera personalities. And prints on the corpse's neck suggest that Swann was strangled.

All Shall Be Well

Perhaps it is a blessing when Jasmine Dent dies in her sleep. At last an end has come to the suffering of a body horribly ravaged by disease. It may well have been suicide; she had certainly expressed her willingness to speed the inevitable. But small inconsistencies lead her neighbor, Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, to a startling conclusion: Dent was murdered. But if not for mercy, why would someone destroy a life already doomed?

Silent Voices: A Vera Stanhope Mystery

When Inspector Vera Stanhope finds the body of a woman in the sauna room of her local gym, she wonders briefly if, for once in her life, she's uncovered a simple death from natural causes. But a closer inspection reveals bruises around the victim's throat, and Vera quickly realizes she has a murder on her hands.

White Nights: A Thriller: Shetland, Book 2

In this second audiobook of the Shetland Quartet to feature Inspector Jimmy Perez, the launch of an exhibition at The Herring House art gallery is disturbed by a stranger who bursts into tears, then claims not to remember who he is or where he comes from. The next day he's found dead, wearing a clown's mask.

Blue Lightning: A Thriller

Inspector Jimmy Perez takes his fiance home to Fair Isle, the tiny island he comes from, to meet his parents. The island is a magnet for bird watchers, who congregate at the local inn and lighthouse. When a local married celebrity who had an eye for the lads is murdered, Perez discovers that the suspects are very close to him indeed.

Raven Black: Book One of the Shetland Island Quartet

It is a cold January morning, and Shetland lies beneath a deep layer of snow. Trudging home, Fran Hunter's eye is drawn to a splash of color on the frozen ground, ravens circling above. It is the strangled body of her teenage neighbor, Catherine Ross. The locals on the quiet island stubbornly focus their gaze on one man - loner and simpleton Magnus Tait.

Thin Air: A Shetland Mystery

A group of old university friends leave the bright lights of London and travel to Shetland to celebrate the marriage of one of their friends. But one of them, Eleanor, disappears - apparently into thin air. It's midsummer, a time of light nights and unexpected mists. And then Eleanor's body is discovered lying in a small loch close to the cliff edge.

Down Among the Dead Men

In a Sussex town on the south coast of England, a widely disliked art teacher at a posh private girls' school disappears without explanation. None of her students miss her boring lessons, especially since her replacement is a devilishly hunky male teacher with a fancy car. But then her name shows up on a police missing persons list. What happened to Miss Gibbon, and why does no one seem to care?

A Share in Death

A week's holiday in a luxurious hotel is just what Scotland Yard's Superintendent Duncan Kincaid needs. But his vacation ends dramatically with the discovery of a dead body in the whirlpool bath. Despite a suspicious lack of cooperation from the local constabulary, Kincaid's keen sense of duty won't allow him to ignore the heinous crime, impelling him to send for his enthusiastic young assistant, Sergeant Gemma James. But the stakes are raised significantly when a second murder occurs....

Looking Good Dead

Tom Bryce picks up a CD which has been left behind on a train seat, but when he attempts to track down the owner, he finds himself the only witness to a savage killing. Reporting the crime to the police has disastrous consequences for Bryce, and the lives of both him and his wife are threatened - by a notification on the internet. When DS Roy Grace becomes involved, he finds himself up against a malignant group of very well-organised criminals....

The Pure in Heart: Simon Serrailler 2

Detective Chief Inspector Simon Serrailler, first introduced in The Various Haunts of Men, is on a painting holiday in Venice when he is summoned home by a telephone call. He has family problems to face, and the stress and grind of running a busy police station. When a little boy is snatched as he stands with his satchel at the gate of his home, waiting for his lift to school, an ordinary community realises that terror and evil are in their very midst.

The Soul of Discretion: Simon Serrailler Book 8

The cathedral town of Lafferton seems idyllic, but in many ways it is just like any other place. As part of the same rapidly changing world, it shares the same hopes and fears, and the same kinds of crime, as any number of towns up and down the land.When one day DC Simon Serrailler is called in by Lafferton's new Chief Constable, Kieron Bright, he is met by four plainclothes officers. He is asked to take the lead role in a complex, potentially dangerous undercover operation and must leave town immediately.

Hunted

Get hooked on Heck: the maverick detective who knows no boundaries. A grisly whodunit you won't be able to put down, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and TV series Luther. Heck needs to watch his back. Because someone's watching him... Across the south of England, a series of bizarre but fatal accidents are taking place. So when a local businessman survives a near-drowning but is found burnt alive in his car just weeks later, DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg is brought in to investigate.

Long Upon the Land: A Deborah Knott Mystery

On a quiet August morning, Judge Deborah Knott's father, Kezzie, makes a shocking discovery on a remote corner of his farm: the body of a man bludgeoned to death. Investigating this crime, Deborah's husband, Sheriff's Deputy Dwight Bryant, soon uncovers a long-simmering hostility between Kezzie and the slain man over a land dispute. The local newspaper implies that Deborah's family may have had something to do with the murder - and that Dwight is dragging his feet on the case.

The Various Haunts of Men: A Simon Serrailler Mystery, Book 1

A woman vanishes in the fog up on "the Hill", an area locally known for its tranquility and peace. The police are not alarmed; people usually disappear for their own reasons. But when a young girl, an old man, and even a dog disappear, no one can deny that something untoward is happening in this quiet town. Young policewoman Freya Graffham is assigned to the case; she's new to the job, compassionate, inquisitive, and dedicated to the task of unraveling the mystery behind this gruesome sequence of events.

Publisher's Summary

In the past...

On a blisteringly hot August afternoon in Crystal Palace, once home to the tragically destroyed Great Exhibition, a solitary 13-year-old boy meets his next-door neighbor, a recently widowed young teacher hoping to make a new start in the tight-knit South London community. Drawn together by loneliness, the unlikely pair forms a deep connection that ends in a shattering act of betrayal.

In the present...

On a cold January morning in London, Detective Inspector Gemma James is back on the job now that her husband, Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid, is at home to care for their three-year-old foster daughter. Assigned to lead a murder-investigation team in South London, she's assisted by her trusted colleague, newly promoted Detective Sergeant Melody Talbot. Their first case: a crime scene at a seedy hotel in Crystal Palace. The victim: a well-respected barrister, found naked, trussed, and apparently strangled. Is it an unsavory accident or murder? In either case, he was not alone, and Gemma's team must find his companion - a search that takes them into unexpected corners and forces them to contemplate unsettling truths about the weaknesses and passions that lead to murder. Ultimately, they will begin to question everything they think they know about their world and those they trust most.

Would you consider the audio edition of The Sound of Broken Glass to be better than the print version?

Don't know--have read all the ones before this, and this is the first I've listened to. I'd be just as happy to read them or listen to them.

Did the plot keep you on the edge of your seat? How?

I would not say it was edge of the seat, but the plot was one that was very intriguing! Crombie wrote this on several entwined levels. She interspersed the history--and ultimate destruction--of the Crystal Palace in London in and out of the back story of characters whose lives had connected such, that over time, a form of destruction which had been building among them was almost inevitable.

In this unfolding--one witnesses the connections and ultimate destruction of a set of people whose lives came together seemingly by chance--but who would remain emotionally connected for many years into the future (that is, the present day). Which, of course, is when the mystery is taking place.

What I especially liked was the way the three layers of story moved in and out leading the reader to the conclusion--along with Gemma, Melody (and Kincaid--though he was more involved in their personal story than as a detective in this book) to the ultimate end. And it was more than just solving a mystery--it was an ending that brought all the pieces of the earlier story together and brought their connections to a different place as well.

What does Gerard Doyle bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

At first I couldn't decide--he has a nice warm, mellow sort of voice--one that almost lulled me rather than evoking that kind of inner excitement that goes with a good mystery. By the end of the book, however, I felt that his voice and his reading had been a very good choice. Because it was perfect for the revelation (as the back story) of the lives of very flawed people who had found each other (for good, for bad, for disaster) and become inextricably connected to each other--something told with the sound of great compassion (even for those who proved to be less than likable).

Any additional comments?

I felt that there were several less prominent issues in the story of the lives of Gemma and Kincaid that were left unfinished--or that of some of the people around them. But I assume we can look forward to learning more about all that in the next book--which I await with pleasure!

This writer has done a very good job of creating good mysteries and weaving in credible and engaging stories of the main characters--that stand on their own merits. Some mysteries seem to have background asides of the main characters' lives as sort of "filler" material. But a few do a wonderful job of making the reader feel really connected to them as people who live lives apart from their detecting--and one wants to read the next book just to find out what is happening there.

I really have enjoyed the books of this series. This one, however, confused me on several levels. First of all, there's the really unlikely series of coincidences upon which the story and solution of this mystery are based. This number of connections would be hard to swallow in the smallest of villages; we're expected to believe that all these people come together exactly at this time and after all these years in a city the size of London!

I'm also trying to figure out the significance of the title and the information given in Chapter-beginning quotes about the old Crystal Palace. It's history is interesting, but the relevance to this story seems a bit obscure.

Gemma and Duncan and their developing relationship and blended family have been an important part of this series. Their domestic bliss, alas, so desired by fans, does not now add much tension or mystery. It's easy to see why authors delay these happy endings for as long as possible. Not to say they have become dull, but such perfect, loving people don't offer the same intrigue that the early Gemma/Duncan byplay did.

The smooth, lilting quality of Gerard Doyle's voice proves a bit too lulling for this sometimes slowly moving story. I think he's usually wonderful as a narrator, but he's not well suited to this listening experience.

The Sound of Broken Glass continues the story of Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James in a most satisfactory way, this time focusing more on Gemma. I find it hard to pinpoint exactly what makes Crombie's novels so much more satisfying than most others in this genre. Many combine engaging characters with interesting story lines, but somehow Crombie makes hers come alive. I feel as though these fascinating people exist somewhere, doing things of interest that I just cannot wait for Crombie to tell me about. The narrator also does an excellent job, moving easily from one character's voice to another without the disarming jolts that sometimes come from a male voice reading both male and female characters. I am always delighted to see an addition to the series coming out, anxious to listen to it (or read it), and sorry when it ends. If you don't know these books, start at the beginning of the series and give yourself the treat of many hours of engrossing story telling.

I listened or read the other 14 in this series within 4 months of downloading #1 from an Audible sale - and enjoyed all till this one.

The novels and characters grew more solid as the series progressed, and although Crombie seemed to "borrow" from best-selling UK crime novelists, the novels grew more original in plot and less cliche ridden in writing (with fewer "raised eyebrows" and "steepled fingers" and standard UK lines that we North Americans love). It took me three attempts to finish this instalment, however. Instead of turning to a Dickens novel or Edwardian poet for chapter starters, Crombie cites tourist and minor history websites--that element, though tiny, seems to symbolize the difference in #14. This one reads more like chick lit or YA than UK classic crime homage, especially as the incredible blended family becomes more --incredible -- and befriends pop stars...perhaps I had just expected too much. I don't enjoy noir but this was just too perky!

I love Gerard Doyle, but Jenny Sterlin became the voice of this series to me, especially as Gemma started to play a larger role.

To be clear - I enjoy "police procedurals". This book goes beyond that classification.

Several fascinating story lines are woven together over the course of the book. I was intrigued to see how all the characters would eventually fit together. I was surprised and pleased by how the author did it..

I quickly became enthralled in the story and found it difficult to stop listening. The characters were interesting and the mystery had me guessing until the very end.

Narrator Gerard Doyle is superb! He differentiates the various character voices just enough. The changes are distinct, but not distracting.

I cannot finish this book. I have read all the others. I can't seem to get the characters in my mind so every time I hear a name I have to pause to think who that is. Maybe some books just need to be read. The greatest aggravation is the "commercials" for the websites. Every time the narrator mentions a certain place he then rattles off the website associated with it. Every time! If this is going to be the new trend in audible books then I have a vast library of my own to keep me busy. I won't be buying more. I would not mind them mentioned at the end of the book but not through out, repeatedly. Others may not mind the interruption of the story flow but I do.

Has The Sound of Broken Glass turned you off from other books in this genre?

This novel is replete with advertisements, a new and underhanded scheme by the author, Deborah Crombie, which listeners must not accept. While the Crystal Palace (a plate-glass building quickly built in 1851, thus the reference to "broken glass" in the title) actually existed in English history, it is not critical to the theme of the book, and in fact its existence could have been completely omitted from the novel without changing any part of the story. However, the author repeatedly uses the words "Crystal Palace" as a reason to then cite the full website addresses of other authors' websites (even the BBC's) that cover the Crystal Palace's history and current status like a barker who attempts to attract patrons to an event they might otherwise pass by. It was very irksome to be listening to this mystery and suddenly have the narrator stop and clearly announce: "w w w dot Judy North dot com" (example only). Presumably the listener is supposed to think Deborah Crombie felt the need to give credit to other authors' thoughts about the Crystal Palace that Ms. Crombie pilfered for use in her own book, like footnotes in a thesis, rather than put the idea in her own words. But this is not a thesis; if the author felt compared to quote so much of other authors' works, she could have done so at the end of the story and all at one time. But since the Crystal Palace had no great significance to the theme of the book, why did Ms. Crombie want to interrupt her story with pointless website promotions about it? Did Ms. Crombie receive payment for each website announced during this novel? That's what it appears to this listener!

What could Deborah Crombie have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Omit the promotion of other authors' works during the narration of the story.

Which scene was your favorite?

There was no scene that stood out as a favorite. The only thing that stood out was the blatant promotion of other authors' websites.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

I don't know. I was too irritated with the "w w w dot Judy North dot coms" promotions to be able to pay the attention to whatever qualities the book may or may not have had to offer.

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